Dear ARLIS/NA colleagues,
On behalf of the ARLIS/NA Mid-Atlantic Chapter I am delighted to announce the 2023 chapter travel awards for the
51st Annual Conference in Mexico City. This year the Mid-Atlantic Chapter offered three awards:
Caroline Backlund Award
This award was established in 2002 and is named in honor of Caroline Backlund (1920-2016) who had a distinguished career
as an art librarian, educator, and author. Mrs. Backlund, a long-time chapter member and received the ARLIS/NA Distinguished Service Award in 1989 for her contributions to the Society. The Backlund award is intended to help student members of the Mid-Atlantic
Chapter become more involved in the ARLIS/NA at the national level by participating in the conference and serving on committees. This award is funded by contributions from Chapter members.
The 2023 Backlund Award winner is Anna Szapiro, a MLIS student at the University of Maryland College of Information
Studies. Anna also works as a student assistant in the Special Collections department of the University of Maryland Library and as a library technician in the Reader Services department of the National Gallery of Art Library.
Washington Art Library Resources Committee Award
The Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC) comprised research libraries in the Greater Washington, DC area. In 1981, WALRC published Art serials: union list of art
periodicals and serials in research libraries in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area (edited by Carolyn S. Larson) which proved to be a very useful and popular publication. In 2018 WALRC, which had been inactive for many years, disbanded and the funds from
the sale of the publication were transferred to the Chapter. The WALRC Award is intended for professional (i.e. non-student) members of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter to become more involved with ARLIS/NA at the national level. Funding for the award is provided
by income from WALRC invested accounts. There were two Washington Art Library Resources Committee Awards for 2023.
One of the 2023 WALRC Award winners is Door Williams, Reference Librarian at the Freeman Library at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Door is a recent graduate of the MLIS program
at Syracuse University and holds a B.A. in art history from George Mason University. They have proposed a poster session for the conference with a colleague at the VMFA on Virginia zinesters that will demonstrate the inclusivity of artists and perspective
found in zines that might well fall outside the parameters of many museums.
The second WALRC award is presented to Elisabeth Narkin, Image Specialist for Architecture at the National Gallery of Art Library. Elisabeth holds a Ph.D. in art history from Duke University and
an M.A. in art history from George Washington University and B.A. in art history and French from Boston College. Prior to coming to the National Gallery of Art, Lis was the Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Humanities Research Center at Rice University.
She has organized a bilingual panel for the conference entitled “Imagining Mexican Art & Architecture / Imaginando Arte y Arquitectura Mexicana,” and will also serve as the moderator.
My thanks to the chapter’s Awards committee for all their work in selecting these outstanding representatives from the chapter for the conference in Mexico City.
Gregg
On behalf of the 2023 ARLIS/NA Mid-Atlantic Chapter Awards Committee
Mid-Atlantic Chapter Awards Committee
Claralyn Burt, Architect of the Capitol
Danielle Brogdon, Yale University
Gregory P. J. Most, National Gallery of Art (chair)
Sams Wilson, University of Maryland College of Information Studies
Gregory P. J. Most
Chief, Department of Image Collections
National Gallery of Art Library
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